Okay, just starting using this as all my two hand characters before were 'good'. Actually this character is a one hand spec. but I read up on it to see if it might be good for a follower, and low and behold it is some kind of morph of one and two hand. I am not sure on all the characteristics but will figure it out. I guess adding perks to two hand do nothing. So I got a lot of one hand perks except great crit charge which i will test out next level under one hand.

As for the weapon itself, it is awesome. I don't generally like curved/eastern swords but it looks okay, and it wields like a real two handed sword should. I mean real ones weighed in the neighborhood of 10 pounds and it strikes fast like a two handed sword should because you have two hand to generate speed and power. Now that she has all the sould need to fill it, she just runs around flailing with abondon, and I have started to just unequip her cuirass just for fun. It might be overpowered.

So did they mean it to be like it is or did they screw it up as well?

According to the wiki, Beth wont confirm whether its a screw up or designed that way.

I can't seem to get mine to work I've killed 10 people who trust me, which is the magic number to fill the sword to it's fullest but it still reads a 33 hit damage in the inventory menu and it doesn't seem to do anything extra then it did when I first found it??? Not a big deal, was just hoping to add to my traveling arsenal The weird thing is that the daedric prince ( the name eludes me at the moment ) that made the blade spoke to me and told me that it was at it's full strength, what's the change supposed to read in the inventory menu, or is it even visible?

IIRC, The damage doesnt increase that much, but the leech effect does. so each time you hit an enemy, some of his health flows into you, damaging them and healing you.

Ok, the 33 damage is a reflection of my one-handed skill, the base damage that the sword does is 10 and the maximum life leach that it can do is 30 so it is still not that powerful compared to what you can create but it does have an unlimited charge. So now my question is, is it worth keeping in my weapon line up? For looks yes but from a combat point of view it doesn't really seem to be all that viable but that's just my opinion, think I'm gonna stick to my ebony great sword, The ebony blade from Oblivion is still my fav. between the two.

Okay. Well I was using it to great effect for a while, even though mine only does 44 damage and i am level 39 as the absorb made every fight pretty easy; until this Briarheart dual wielding ate my lunch and I had to equip my highly smithed elven sword and shield.

That said, now I have some more questions about how it works exactly. The uesp article, like so many, is too vague. I took Critical Charge under one hand, just to see if it works, and it doesn't appear to. So some perks from the one hand tree work, apparently, and other don't.

Does anyone know which perks exaclty from one hand work? I am not even sure if Swordsman's Stance works or the decapitation one, as she used it quite a while and never got a decap cut scene, could not really tell if attack dam was 25% higher.

I honestly think it was made that way on purpose.

Well I am doing some preliminary testing on it. I used the console to set it up where I could use critical charge from both trees, as well as required perks. Neither one works, so uesp was wrong on that. I haven't looked into the console enough to try to get figures from inside it, but will continue to just addperk and skill via console and test.

But I am tired of that now and want to just go wack some stuff, besides I am pissed because for some reason Derktheeus won't leave Darkwater and I wanted to get brownie points for saving him and do more evil later. (It isn't so much about the evil you do in the dark, as the good you do in the day).

well i would say it depends on if you take much damage while fighting - thats when the leech effect would be most valuable. If your armour is at the cap, or close to it, the blade probably doesnt add much benefit. (it does look pretty cool though)

the wiki has more info that UESP in this case, check http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Ebony_Blade_%28Skyrim%29

I'm not sure why it would be intentional. It's a shame it's broken, I love the look of katanas, but I refuse to use it in it's current state.

The Ebony Blade is just another one of Mephala's attempts to screw with mortals. She wouldn't just hand you a free weapon for doing her dirty work, it was all a trick to get you to kill your friends. You'll find out it was a scam eventually, but that won't happen until much later.

I suppose. It was one-handed in Oblivion so it would make sense. But it still bothers me that they would break the weapon to that extent just for that reason.

Well it says that Great Critical Charge unde two hand tree should apply, however, it doesn't. I tested it in game not looking at what table it is on in the construction set. I doubt the other two hand perks wiki says apply work either. Also, I have used it a lot and never got a decap using the one hand perk tree either. Thanks for the link though, I often check there on things but forgot this time.

Okay, latest check reveals that Fighters Stance from one hand perks does reduce stamina cost on power attacks with Ebony Blade. Still have had no decapitations though.

Ok I know that the damage increases with the one-handed base damage perk. I also know that I can do two-handed finishers with it (including decapitations I think), which is pretty cool. Although I don't know exactly which perk affects that. Beyond that, I know nothing.

It's a pretty fun weapon to use. It's very useful if you have a character proficient in one-handed and you want to improve your two-handed skill.

It does one or two of the finishers, I know the one where you impale someone thru the gut and throw them down. But I have yet to get a decap with it after well over a hundred kills and since it is supposed to be 25% chance off power attacks, I don't think it actually does decap.

Okay, new update. She finally got a decap cut scene, but it must be based off two handed which it says in the wiki. I will continue to just give her perks in the two hand tree as her skill grows and we will see which others work.

I knew I remember decapitating someone with it, but it rarely happens.

On another note. I think the base damage is affected by the one AND two-handed overall rating. I created a khajit barbarian and he is nowhere near 100 in one-handed. I did however notice that the the combination of my one and two-handed overall skill is a little over 100. My one-handed skill is only in the 40's.

This weapon gets freakier by the day lol.

EDIT: Nevermind, I completely forgot about my fortify one-handed equipment. :\